The Synthesis of Yoga - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

The Gradations of the Supermind 819
the Purusha rises above the mental elevation and now looks
down on the whole action of mind, life, sense, body from quite
another light and atmosphere, sees and knows it with quite a
different vision and, because he is no longer involved in the mind,
with a free and true knowledge. Man is at present only partly
liberated from the animal involution, — for his mind is partially
lifted above, partially immerged and controlled by the life, sense
and body, — and he is not at all liberated from the mental forms
and limits. But after he rises to the supramental elevation, he
is delivered from the nether control and governor of his whole
nature — essentially and initially only at first and in his highest
consciousness, for the rest remains still to be transformed, —
but when or in proportion as that is done, he becomes a free
being and master of his mind, sense, life and body.
The second character of the change is that the formation of
the thought and will can take place now wholly on the supramental
level and therefore there is initiated an entirely luminous
and effective will and knowledge. The light and the power are
not indeed complete at the beginning because the supramental
reason is only an elementary formulation of the supermind and
because the mind and other members have yet to be changed
into the mould of the supramental nature. The mind, it is true,
no longer acts as the apparent originator, formulator or judge
of the thought and will or anything else, but it still acts as
the transmitting channel and therefore in that degree as a recipient
and to a certain extent an obstructor and qualifier in
transmission of the power and light that comes from above.
There is a disparateness between the supramental consciousness
in which the Purusha now stands, thinks and wills and the mental,
vital and physical consciousness through which he has to
effectuate its light and knowledge. He lives and sees with an
ideal consciousness, but he has yet in his lower self to make
it entirely practical and effective. Otherwise he can only act
with a greater or less spiritual effectiveness through an internal
communication with others on the spiritual level and on the
higher mental level that is most easily affected by it, but the
effect is diminished and is retarded by the inferiority or lack of